


Oh, Little Sister Mine

by SummerStormFlower



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alcoholism, Babysitters, Big Brothers, Child Abandonment, Child Neglect, Dyslexia, Family, Fluff, Gen, Growing Up, Hard childhood, Sibling Love, Siblings, bad babysitters, hinted disability, little kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26186854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerStormFlower/pseuds/SummerStormFlower
Summary: A young Kai raises his little sister Nya.
Relationships: Cole & Lloyd Garmadon & Kai & Nya & Jay Walker & Zane, Kai & Nya (Ninjago)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 97





	Oh, Little Sister Mine

Kai woke up to his little sister’s abrupt scream. He threw off his blankets and jumped out of bed as fast as he could, then darted out of his bedroom. 

He carefully poked his head around the corner to check on Mrs. Grumbmiller. He found her, snoring on the couch in front of the tv, beer bottle dangling from her hand. Not much could stir her when she got like this. 

Kai thought Mrs. Grumbmiller was good. Just not when she was drinking. She was mean to them and called them names when she was drinking. She drank often.

Kai crept into his sister’s room then. He climbed into her bed and he could hear her sobbing. The sound broke his heart. 

“Hey, it’s okay. It was just a bad dream,” Kai whispered soothingly, gathering Nya in his arms. It was times like these he wished he was a little bigger, a little older, a little stronger. Then maybe he could take care of Nya better.

Nya sniffled and hiccuped, scrubbing the tears from her eyes. “I don’t like bad dreams,” she pouted. 

Kai hugged her tighter, resting his cheek against her black hair. “I know you don’t,” he whispered. 

“Will you stay with me?” Nya asked him, eyes big and glossy still with tears, bottom lip sticking out. 

“Yeah,” Kai replied, and shimmied under the blankets. With one arm keeping Nya close to him, he could feel her breathing on his collarbone. He didn’t mind though—was used to it, actually. This wasn’t the first time they’d slept in the same bed, after all. 

“Thanks, Kai,” Nya said and yawned, eyelids dropping already. 

“Anytime, sis,” Kai whispered back. He only fell asleep after Nya did.  
•••

When Kai got home from school, Nya was moping the kitchen floor. Something in the air reeked harshly, making Kai scrunch up his nose. 

“What’s that smell?” he asked his sister. 

Nya looked up at him. “Mrs. Grumbmiller threw up,” she said, going back to her mopping. The mop was much too tall for her, but she’d used it many times before and had learned to use it properly. 

“She threw up again?” Kai asked incredulously. He peeked into the living room. Mrs. Grumbmiller was curled up on the sofa. Kai sighed and climbed up on the counter to reach the cabinets.

“I already gave her medicine,” Nya said, having known what to do after seeing her brother do it so many times.

“Oh.” Kai climbed off the counter. “Has she eaten?”

Nya shook her head. “I made her a sandwich, but she threw it on the ground and called me stupid.”

Kai rolled his eyes. “Mrs. Grumbmiller!” he shouted. 

She didn’t move. 

Kai crossed his arms. “I know you can hear me. You need to eat.”

Mrs. Grumbmiller swatted her hand at the air in a ‘leave me alone’ motion. “I already ate,” she grumbled. 

“Nya says you didn’t,” Kai said.

“Well then Nya’s a stupid little liar.”

Kai and Nya look at each other. They both shook their heads. 

“I’m making you soup and you’re gonna eat it, Mrs. Grumbmiller,” Kai said, searching the kitchen for the ingredients.

Mrs. Grumbmiller humphed. “Dumb kid.”

‘No’, Kai thought to himself, ‘Dumb babysitter’.  
•••

The school was rather small, so most of the grades were just crammed into one classroom. So when Nya was old enough to start school, she was in the same class as Kai. 

She was a smart little girl. Kai knew how smart she was. He wasn’t surprised when all of their teachers liked her. What he was, was proud. She was good at math, science, history, art, and she was at the top of gym class in her age group. The grades were segregated for physical education to make it fair. 

Nya almost never needed Kai’s help in any of her subjects. In fact, she hardly ever had homework. Instead, she often helped Kai with his homework. 

Not that Kai needed help. He just let her... assist him because she liked it. Okay well, sometimes he needed his sister’s help. But only when he couldn’t read. 

Nya very rarely struggled and she despised failure. However, she did struggle in one area. 

Making friends. Despite her good heart, Nya struggled to make friends. She had tried playing with their classmates. The girls thought she was too much of a tomboy, and the boys didn’t want to play with a girl. She tried not to show it, but Kai knew she was lonely sometimes. 

Kai didn’t have any friends either. Nobody wanted to be friends with the boy who couldn’t read very well. 

But Kai didn’t let it bother him. As far as he was concerned, all he needed was Nya.  
•••

Nya got her first period when she was twelve. Mrs. Grumbmiller had explained what it was to her, but offered nothing more than that. Kai had to do everything else. 

Although he didn’t like it, he wasn’t just going to let his little sister go through it by herself. She had no idea what to do and had spent many hours crying in the bathroom. 

Kai bought her pads, not looking the cashier in the eye when he paid for them. He taught her how to use them, even though it was uncomfortable and embarrassing. He washed the blood stains out of her underwear, which was a whole new level of gross. 

He got used to it though. He was eventually able to look the cashier in the eye when he bought pads for his sister. Once Nya had learned to use them by herself, she didn’t need his help in the bathroom anymore. And the number of underwear Kai had to wash decreased immensely. 

The cramps and mood swings were a little harder to deal with.

Nya didn’t normally get bad cramps. But sometimes, they bothered her enough to make her uncomfortable. Some warm soup and a restful nap usually helped her. 

It was impossible to predict Nya’s emotions when she was on her period. She could go from furious screaming to hysteric giggling to heart-wrenching sobs in less than five minutes. 

Kai got a headache trying to figure out how to act around her. One moment, she could want a hug from him. The next, she could want to smack his face. And sometimes, she wanted to hug him and smack his face at the same time. And sometimes, she did. 

Arguments with her went in circles and made absolutely no sense. 

Some nights, she’d wake up and climb into his bed, crying, asking if he really loved her. Or if she was pretty. Or if she was fat or too skinny. Or if she was annoying. Or if she was a bad person. 

It was hard. Kai couldn’t understand why she felt so bad about herself. She was so confident. It was like she became a completely different person for an entire week every month. 

It was even harder when Nya got mean. She could be really mean. 

Kai learned though. He learned when to make warm soup for her. He learned to leave her alone when she was angry. He learned how to comfort her when she was sad. And he learned not to take her words to heart when she got mean. 

By the time Nya was thirteen, Kai was sure he could face absolutely anything. 

And then Nya had to start wearing bras, which was a whole other unpleasant adventure. 

At the end of the day, Kai realized that he would never fully understand girls.  
•••

The day they were old enough to move out on their own, was the best day of their lives. No more cleaning up their babysitter’s vomit. No more guiding her to bed at night when she was drunk. No more picking up her empty alcohol bottles. No more of her insults. No more of her throwing the food they made for her on the floor. 

They were free. 

Kai and Nya moved into their parents’ old blacksmith shop. After renovating and getting it set up again, they reopened. 

Business took off the day after they hung up the open sign. They both enjoyed running the shop, and they made good money. They built a good life for themselves. 

Kai checked on Mrs. Grumbmiller once a week. Despite how difficult she’d made their childhood, she was the closest thing they had to a mother. And she cared about them. She didn’t say it often, but Kai knew she cared about them. 

And he might have cared about her too. Just a little.

He checked on her just to see how she was doing. He’d clean up around the living room. If the fridge looked empty, he bought some groceries. If Mrs. Grumbmiller was sick, Kai would have her lay down in bed and put a wet cloth on her forehead. 

It was easier to take care of people now. Now that he was bigger, older and stronger.  
•••

Mrs. Grumbmiller’s funeral was small. Only Kai and Nya were there. She hadn’t been a very well-liked woman. It was hard to say if anyone was really sad. 

Kai didn’t cry. He tried to, but he couldn’t. 

Nya didn’t cry either, but she held onto Kai’s hand.

Neither of them said anything about her. What was there to say? She’d never been all that nice to them. Although, she was definitely nicer to them than she had been to most people. 

“If she’d had an easier life,” Nya whispered, “maybe she would’ve been different.”

Kai nodded. 

They were a little sad.  
•••

Lloyd had fallen asleep between Kai and Nya in the middle of a movie. He’d curled up against Nya’s arm and had an ankle on Kai’s lap. His chest moved up and down as he breathed, a peaceful expression upon his sleeping face. 

“Life truly is mysterious,” Nya said quietly, stroking a hand through Lloyd’s blond curls. 

Kai looked at her curiously. “Yeah? How so?”

Nya grinned. “Well, just think. It used to be you and me,” she said. She smiled down at Lloyd. “There was a time, I never would’ve thought our family would grow so much.”

Kai chuckled quietly and turned off the movie. “Guess so,” he said. 

It was true, though, he realized. There was a time, he had told Master Wu to get out of his shop. There’d been a time, he didn’t want anything at all to do with Cole, or Jay, or Zane. He even used to think Lloyd was a brat. 

And, well, Lloyd still was a brat. But Kai loved him now. 

He loved Cole, Jay and Zane too. 

They were his brothers now. Now that Kai thought about it, he would’ve never even wanted to have brothers some years back. 

Life was mysterious. Change was a mysterious and incredible thing. 

“I’m going to put him in bed,” Nya then whispered and carefully picked Lloyd up. He grunted, but didn’t wake up and nuzzled into Nya’s shoulder. 

Kai blinked. He used to hold Nya like that when she was little. 

What a role reversal. The little sister... being a big sister. 

Going from having one sibling... to having five siblings... and an old man who drank too much tea. 

Ah, how life changed so mysteriously. 

Well, one thing would always stay the same; Nya would always be his little sister.


End file.
